It had been just days since someone inexplicably killed two people in Rogers Park, and the woman was looking for a neighbor to walk her from the Red Line stop — a daunting prospect for people now afraid to leave their homes.

So she posted her request on Rogers Park Safe Walk, a private Facebook group created since the killings. The founder, Max McKune, messaged back that he would be the one escorting her the five or six blocks to her home. He sent along a description of what he was wearing.

The woman was nervous, McKune recalled later, but happy to have someone with her. When they got to her block, they "shook hands and parted ways," he said.

“As much as people want to trust everyone in Rogers Park, trust is hard when violence is happening,” explained McKune, a 22-year-old special education classroom assistant at Joyce Kilmer Elementary in the North Side neighborhood.

He is one of a handful of people using social media to help Rogers Park residents cope after 73-year-old Douglass Watts was killed Sept. 30 while walking his dogs and 24-year-old Eliyahu Moscowitz was shot dead Oct. 1 while walking on a lakefront bike path a few blocks away. The killings were about 36 hours apart and have been traced to the same gun.

Fueling fears is the vague description given by police, primarily from surveillance footage from the first shooting: a man wearing all black and a mask that covered most of his face. He has a distinctive walk, his feet splayed outward. Police say they are at a loss for a motive.

A web of support networks has sprung up on social media to connect neighbors, from safety escorts to new block clubs where neighbors share observations and advice.

Those looking for someone to walk with are discouraged from posting exactly when and where they want to meet someone to walk to the grocery store, for example. If someone responds online, the person making the request can then send a private message giving more detail.

Video provided by the Chicago Police Department shows the suspect in two fatal shootings in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

Video provided by the Chicago Police Department shows the suspect in two fatal shootings in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

Participants are encouraged to write “complete” on their original post after safely arriving at their destination to add a layer of accountability.

McKune said he modeled the walking group after one he set up for students at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. He noticed the Rogers Park Neighborhood News Facebook page, with nearly 8,000 members, was flooded with requests for walking partners.

McKune said he approved 200 members to his group in the first two days.

Jason Saini, 45, also noticed all the postings seeking neighbors for company. His solution was establishing the Pratt/Farwell/Morse Block Club to “bring something positive out of tragedy."

One person posted a link on the club's Facebook page for buying pepper spray, another wrote about meeting to walk dogs. Others simply shared observations of what the neighborhood was like during their walks in the days following the shootings, including a picture of the words “killing is rude” spray-painted in red on one of the sidewalks.

Before the shooting, Saini said people often walked down the street with their eyes on their phones and headphones in their ears.

Now people are more vigilant, keeping their heads up and holding eye contact with passers-by, he said. They may offer a warm smile and say hello.

Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune

A memorial for Eliyahu Moscowitz sits near Chicago's Loyola Park on Wednesday, Oct. 10, near where he was shot and killed while walking on a lakefront path Oct. 1.

A memorial for Eliyahu Moscowitz sits near Chicago's Loyola Park on Wednesday, Oct. 10, near where he was shot and killed while walking on a lakefront path Oct. 1. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

"People just appear to be connecting more,” said Saini, who helps manage car restoration projects. “It’s changed the dynamics of walking down the street in a really positive way."

He was surprised at such a sudden positive change on the streets when people are so shaken and nervous. "I didn't really see it coming, but it makes sense retrospectively," he said. “Going out and helping others felt like we were both safer for it."

His block club has 214 members — 50 showed up at the first two meetings.

"I've learned that my neighbors are a much more diverse group, in not just ethnicity or social or economic circles, but just such a wide range of professionals and talent,” Saini said.

While he imagines people will inevitably go back to their old routines, he thinks this shift in awareness can still fundamentally change the neighborhood. That’s why he intends to keep his block club going, organizing social events and giving his neighbors a platform to voice concerns.

Fallon Sowers, 35, lives on the block where Watts was killed. She started the Sherwin Block Club the day after the shooting to turn her fear into action by uniting her neighbors.

Sowers said she was overwhelmed by the turnout at the first block meeting on Monday — at least 45 people.

“I saw how real it was,” she said of her neighbors' fears. “I could see it in people's faces last night.”

Sowers, a licensed clinical social worker at a mental health nonprofit in Evanston, said people were concerned about the mental health of their community, particularly among those who had seen Watts’ body on the sidewalk.

Now she is coordinating help for those experiencing trauma. “If anything, it’s kind of opened me up more to want to talk more to my neighbors who were perhaps strangers before.”

Not far from Sowers' block, Ketlie Luckett, 62, strolled down Touhy Avenue Wednesday morning as she accompanied her niece to school, her Shih Tzu named Mocha trotting along beside.

The trees along the sidewalk were beginning to turn but the air was still warm. Luckett exchanged pleasantries and smiles with those passing by. Rogers Park has been her home for the past 40 years.

Her cellphone went off. As Luckett rummaged through her jacket, her driver’s license fell out of her pocket. She has recently started carrying it on all her walks, she explained matter-of-factly, just in case police need to identify her body.

That's how life was now, she said, anyone could be next.

The first shooting happened near the condo she owns. Surveillance footage of the suspect shows the shooter running past her apartment. She had been home the day it happened and was terrified the killer might have hidden in her basement.

Still, Luckett said she and her large extended family have not considered leaving Rogers Park. “I’m not going to let anybody push me out of my lifestyle or my house."